The University of Washington Student Newspaper
Friday, October 27, 2000

To serve and protect - or just to kill?
Webster S. Walker, Daily Staff

…    Since the first Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team was created in Los Angeles in the late 1960s, the development of Police Paramilitary Units (PPU) has spread throughout the United States, bringing high-powered military-style attacks and collateral damage. Beyond the immediate threat of a PPU busting down your door and shooting your grandfather, the transformation of civilian police forces into military assault teams is threatening democracy and holding the Bill of Rights hostage.

    Originally invented to deal with rare instances of armed hostage taking, or snipers taking potshots from atop public buildings, PPUs have expanded their mandate under the pretext of the 'war on drugs.' Not content with storing their armor during the years between sniper and hostage situations, SWAT teams have found steady work in the drug war, busting down doors and overpowering suspected drug dealers.

    The militarization of our civilian police has undermined basic protections in the Bill of Rights that protect us from the power of a police state. According to Eastern Kentucky University researcher Peter Kraska,

    "By the end of 1995, about 90 percent of police agencies serving populations of 50,000 people or more had a PPU ... [we] documented 29,962 tactical call-outs in 1995; this is a 939 percent increase since 1980 when there were 2,884 call-outs ... Nearly every police official in small and large agencies explained in phone interviews that their PPUs have become involved heavily in "no-knock" search warrants on residences suspected of drug crimes. A "no-knock" drug raid is a surprise SWAT-team search for illegal drugs, guns and money conducted at a private residence usually during pre-dawn hours ... About 80 percent of the call-outs in the last five years ... were not for traditional SWAT functions but, rather, for "no-knock" drug raids.

    The Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure has been tossed on the scrap heap. Judges authorize 'no-knock' raids based on 'evidence' from single jail-house informers seeking to reduce their own time, and PPUs charge in, guns drawn, tossing 'flash-bang' grenades ahead of them. Instances of cops smashing down the wrong door and shooting groggy grandparents or cowering children can be found in newspapers from across the country, including Seattle and Tacoma.